Garlic Farm Open Day

We harvested literally hundreds of bulbs of garlic from the farm today, with help from families and teachers. It was hard work lifting them carefully out of the ground but we have all our Mikulov, Lautrec, Early Purple and Solent Wight crops drying out in crates now. What a good effort! Now to plan the autumn's planting...

Blenheim Palace Flower Show 2014

As our first Blackbird Academy Trust collaborative Outdoor Learning project we aimed high by designing and building a show garden for Blenheim Palace Flower Show. Our theme was 'Eat your Garden' and it was filled with edible plants and veg in our chosen colour scheme of purple and orange. These included red cabbage, purple basil, french beans, radiccio, chives beetroot and bright orange marigolds. We also had a garlic theme to promote our Garlic Farm project (with freshly harvested elephant garlic). The children were involved at every stage of looking after the plants, researching information and promotional materials, constructing the garden and welcoming visitors.

See how we built the garden in this video; Blenheim Palace Flower Show - Tuesday! - YouTube

On every show day we had teams of children from each school explaining the design and providing information about the plants. All the hard work paid off and we were thrilled to receive a gold award for garden design from Monty Don!

Read what the Oxford Mail said about the project.

Roman shields

Year 3 have been learning about the Romans, so we have been exploring how the roman army managed to win so many battles. We have practiced javelin throwing, sword fighting and even made some roman shields. We learnt how to march in the tortoise formation, which protected the soldiers from arrows and missiles.

 

Digging rivers

To link to their River topic, year 4 have been making miniature flowing river diagrams. They included features like meanders, source and tributaries by carving them into a hill. We tested them by pouring water from the top and seeing if it made it to the mouth.

 

The shelters

We are in in year 5.

We made some shelters with ropes and sticks.

We all were in a team.

We all worked together.

We had hot chocolate in the shelters.

We all looked each other's shelters.

By tianna

 

Woodland windows

Year 3 have been reading Jeannie Baker's book, 'Window' in class. In Outdoor learning we have been following this up by making our own window frames by lashing sticks together.

                                                                                               

 Then we tried to recreate the view from our own bedroom windows (after sketching it out). We used all natural materials found in he woods including sticks, leaves and grass, with some spectacular results.

Mud glorious mud.

 

Since Christmas the rain has been relentless. As you can see from the sorry state of the chicken run, the mud has taken over our outside spaces; fun for splashing in puddles but the chicks don't seem to appreciate that!

 

 

Luckily the Council parks service helped us out by delivering a truckload of fresh woodchippings. The Year 5s shoveled and raked it all over the muddy paths and made it look lovely again!

 

Bench update!

After weeks of sawing, drilling, whittling, and sanding we have finally got some of the Year 6 benches finished! We'll done for all your hard work. We will be using some of them in our outdoor classroom and might sell some, if they pass our rigorous safety testing.

 

Egg flying challenge

Some of the year 5 were trying to make parachutes to protect the egg so it won't crack when we drop the egg from a hight of 120cm. (Written by Louis, Jessica and Samantha).

What a cracking design!

Parachutes in action.

Sadly, some eggs did not make it.

 

We had ten straws, four pieces of card, two metres of string, some plastic and thirty centimetres of tape to protect the egg from a drop on the hard floor. The challenge was to secure the egg, cushion the fall and slow it down with a parachute. Previous groups had managed 1.2 metres but one 'smashed' the record by reaching 2.5 metres without a single crack!

 

 

Bench project part 1

Year 6 will be designing and making some seating for our outdoor classroom using wood from the school grounds over the next few weeks. We had an introduction using saws and drills to make scale models out of some scrap pallets.

Sawing the pallet (safety glove on non-saw hand).

Clamping the wood to the table.

Using a hand drill to make hole for the legs.

 

Firework collages

Year 3 groups have been using the shapes and colours in autumn leaves to make some spectacular firework collages. We cut up the they leaves then exploded them on the paper, adding details with oil pastels. The children then used 'wow' words to appreciate each other's work! Let us know what you think.

 

 

Flying our kites.

We finally got a clear blustery day to try out Year 3's kites in the playground . As you can see all the hard work paid off!

 

Kites with Year 3

Red Kite and Osprey classes have been constructing their own kites using just plastic bags, sticks, tape and wool. We were hoping to take advantage of some autumn wind but have only had rain so far! Fingers crossed for some blowy weather next week so we can see if they fly. Here are some instructions to make your own.

 

Exciting mushrooms!

Barn Owls class found these unusual mushrooms in the school woods. Any guesses what they might be called?

 

Hedgelaying

Oxford Conservation Volunteers came to Windale last Sunday to give our overgrown hedge some much needed attention. Around fifteen willing helpers (including Mr James!) used hand tools to lay the hedge to make it smaller, denser and neater for years to come. This ancient skill makes hedges a very valuable habitat for wildlife like birds, insects and hedgehogs. Thank you OCV!

Before; overgrown and bare in places.

Adding stakes to hold it in place.

 Although the process involved cutting back many of the trees, they will grow back in one or two years.

The finished result.

Dyeing with nature.

Year 4 were collecting lots of different plants and berries on trees and bushes.

We have been smashing all of it together and making loads of patterns to make pictures .

(Written by Tawny Owls group 2)

Collecting colourful leaves, berries and flowers.

Hammering them to release the natural dyes. Mind those fingers!

The result; vibrant butterflies!

 

Blackberry picking.

Having used most of the available fruit in the school (see Homegrown crumble), Year 5 groups 3 and 4 went blackberry picking in Spindleberry park for their crumbles.

 

Pyramus and Thisbe.

The Year 6 groups have been creating storyboards and acting out scenes from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. This fits in with their work on A Midsummer Night's Dream as it is the play Bottom and the workers act out for the prince. We used scenes and props in the school grounds to bring the story to life.

Pyramus and Thisbe speak through a crack in the wall.

Thisbe flees from the lion, dropping her veil.

 

New flowers for the school entrance.

The path at the entrance to the school has been looking a bit bare since the gardeners took out all the weeds, so we've ordered 120 tiny plants to put in. These include pansies, primulas and forget-me-nots which will hopefully give us some colourful winter flowers...if we take care of them!

A group of Year 5s managed to re-pot all 120 tiny 'plug' plants to give the roots room to grow bigger, before transferring them to the flower bed. Go team!
We've also prepared the soil by weeding thoroughly and adding some of our super Windale-made compost (enriched with chicken poo)!

 

Chicken care

Our Year 3 groups have been meeting the school chickens and learning about their needs. They will be responsible for collecting the eggs, cleaning them out and making sure they are fed and watered.

We also designed our perfect chicken homes with everything they would need to keep them happy and healthy. Ideas have included electric security systems, climbing frames and worm digging areas!